


Family Ties

by puste_blume



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, past coming back
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2019-09-25 16:57:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17125196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puste_blume/pseuds/puste_blume
Summary: A young girl is looking for a certain Riza Hawkeye. And a scavenger hunt into the past ensues.





	1. Lizzard

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MaikaMaika](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaikaMaika/gifts).



> I wrote and am still writing this fanfiction for @maikamaika on tumblr :D I hope you like your FMA Secret Santa present :). And I swear I'll finish this as soon as I can. The plot and everything is already done, so don't worry ;)

Lizzard

A loud noise echoed across the field, loud and clear, piercing the warm air of this lazy day at the end of May. The shooting range was almost empty today, save for a woman laying in the dust, a rifle pressed to her shoulder. Her mouth was pressed shut and a bit of sweat ran down her forehead. She reloaded, breathed in and aimed at her target which was about 100 metres away. When she pulled the trigger a sharp pain from the ricocheting weapon made her close her eyes for a moment, and only after a while she was able to see how well she hit the target. The bullet had missed the bulls eye by a few centimetres. “Shit”, she cursed under her breath, and was almost too distracted to notice the footsteps of another person approaching.  
“Should you really be training again?” the voice sounded like a mother scolding a child. “Are you my doctor?” Riza Hawkeye rolled around and sat up, pushing a few short strands of blonde hair out of her face, and looked up at her friend. “No,” Rebecca smiled and reached out a hand “but I’m sure you didn’t listen to them either!” Riza took the hand and let her friend help her up. “Well, I need to get back into the trot eventually. And times are still a bit too dangerous for me not to be in my best shape.” “Those things need time, goddammit! You have been out of the hospital, what, for a couple of weeks? You almost died that day; do I need to remind you? No? Good.” Rebecca should her head “You’re just way too fucking pig-headed, but of course you know that.” Riza shouldered her rifle and mindlessly raised her hand to the scar on her neck. “At least that makes me hard to kill, apparently.” She winked at her brunette friend who just rolled her eyes. The two walked towards the changing room. “Why are you here, anyway?” “Oh, I had a feeling I’d find you here.” Riza raised her eyebrows. “Alright, Havoc told me. He was actually on his way to find you, someone called and left a message for you.”  
They had arrived in the changing room and the Lieutenant wrinkled her forehead while she took off her shoes. “A message for me? By whom?”  
While Riza kept undressing, Rebecca searched her pockets and finally, triumphantly, pulled out a little crumpled up piece of paper. She followed Riza to the showers, and, standing against the door, started to read.  
“Okay it says here, and I quote:’ message for R., from lady called Lis-‘ oh gosh his handwriting is the worst, I swear it looks like ‘Lizzard’! Oh wait, this is supposed to be a -th, uhm, maybe Lisbeth? Do you know any Lisbeths?” Riza seemed to think about the name while shampooing her hair. “Oh, and it says here ‘child’, so maybe she is a child?” “No, I think he’s talking about me” said Riza, who seemed to remember. “When I was a child I knew a Lisbeth; she was one of the two ladies who practically raised me.”  
Rebecca looked at her friend for a while with a quizzical look. Riza hardly ever talked about her childhood. Well, of course there was the business with Mustang and her father, Rebecca was reminded of that when Riza turned her back to her. She’d known that since their first days at the academy, where they had met each other. Standing guard here at the entrance of the showers was not an unusual role for Rebecca, who understood that her friend’s back might not be a sight fit for just anyone’s eyes. People might misunderstand. Or worse. Understand. Even now with half of the circle ruined, burned away, you could tell about the significance of such an array. Rebecca watched water trickle down the muscular and scarred back of her friend and cleared her throat.  
“You mean, after your mom died?” “Yes”, Riza turned the water off and dried herself off with a towel, “Lisbeth and Moira. They owned a corner shop and, luckily, took enough pity in me to keep me fed and in school. I don’t think I’d faired as well as I did without their help. They must be in their sixties now. I wonder if the shop is still there.” Riza walked past Rebecca and towards her clothes. “What does the rest of the note say? Why did she call?” Rebecca tried to decipher Havoc’s blotchy handwriting. “Uhm ‘young girl at old address, look for R., wanted to come Central, be here?’ and because I have a degree in Havoc translation, I’m guessing a young girl was at your old address looking for you and Lisbeth had sent her to Central and is now asking if she has found you yet.” Riza pulled a brown turtle neck over her head. “Anything else?” “Well, it says ‘congrats!’ so I bet she wants to congratulate you for something. Congratulations!” said Rebecca and threw her arms up in the air dramatically. “You know, I still have to ask Havoc later if that’s really what it meant. How come he didn’t explain more but just handed you the note?” “He was late for physical therapy I think, so he was pretty glad I showed up and volunteered to deliver the message.” “Ah.” 

Riza sat down on the bench and pulled her left boot towards her. It had now been almost two months since the Promised Day. And Havoc had been healed almost directly after it, on Roy’s orders, who didn’t want to take the power of Marco’s stone without being reassured of Jean’s legs working again. And even then, he had waited for almost another whole week. “I need to stay in this hospital anyway, right? So, I don’t need my eyes right now. I’ll get them fixed once it’s important for me.” His reasoning was just his way of self-punishment. For having almost lost his way. For then and for now. For being the Flame Alchemist. She suspected that deep down he was relieved for the loss of his eyesight. It meant that he had found a way of paying for his crimes. And when he was blind, he could just give up. Simply lock himself in some room and never come out again. It would be so easy. She knew, because she had thought about the same thing over and over. So easy.  
But it wasn’t their way to set things right. Hence when he was ready to be discharged, Marco came and gave him his eyesight back. She had watched the whole thing from her hospital bed next to his. A red flash and Roy blinked heavily. “Your sight should now slowly be coming back” Marco had promised while Roy rubbed his eyes. He slowly turned his head towards her and a slight smile crept over his face. “Yeah, I think it does. You look horrible, Lieutenant.” Riza released her breath she had unconsciously held and closed her eyes for a moment, tension falling away from her. It had worked. “Speak for yourself” she retorted, although she knew he didn’t look half as bad a she did. She had had lost a ton of blood and strained herself so much she had been at death’s doorstep. Aside from the deep cuts on her neck, she had also suffered internal bleeding, not noticed until after a day or so at the hospital. Some organ or other had been punctured. Another broken bone in her foot she hadn’t felt until the first shock was over. Which meant she’d be spending a lot more time in here, now without him. Damn. 

“Alright, well, no girl has been around yet and when Havoc has gone for physical therapy I’ll probably have to wait until tomorrow to ask him about more information than the note we have.” Riza walked towards the exit and Rebecca followed her. “Yeah, I guess. Do you have to go back to the office? It’s almost five! We could go for coffee.” Riza looked at the brunette woman. “I’d love to, but you know full well they don’t get any work done without me.” Rebecca smiled slightly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. When, uhm, when are you leaving for Ishval anyway?” “A month, I guess. We have to make lots of preparations before then, but the Col- uhm, Brigadier-General is getting antsy. He can’t wait to go and do something, which makes him forget the ‘boring’ paperwork still to do until then.” Rebecca laughed. “Well, have fun babysitting then.” Riza made a right towards the street and half turned around to the other woman. “Will do” she said and waved, before she started walking down the street, towards Headquarters.


	2. Target Practise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riza Hawkeye is late for work and this almost never happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo ;) Here is my second chapter. I'd love if you could leave me some Kudos and comments x333 Thaaaaanks~

It was a mild May morning, the sun was shining, everybody was happy, and a certain Roy Mustang was late for work. While he was hasting towards the door of his office, he suddenly picked up a few voices. “UHHHHH! Okay, now it’s my turn,” followed by a short silence and then, a disappoint “Awww,” by multiple male voices. “Another one!” This one was definitely Furey’s voice. To find out what was going on, Roy walked quickly forward and pulled open the door and --- was hit in the face by something wet.  
He reached out his hand and pulled a wet paper ball from his cheek, held it out and looked at the room. His men were standing there - frozen in place. Falman’s mouth was hanging open a little, Fuery had his hands raised over his mouth, Breda just stood there, frozen in place, and Havoc was slowly turning his head around, as he had been sitting on a chair with his back towards the door. “Soooo… I guess I win?” Havoc shot a slight smile towards his superior officer. Roy quickly scanned the room, noticed that Hawkeye wasn’t there, neither was her coat or her dog, then, he looked back at Havoc. “Well,” he said as he threw up the wet paper ball in his hand and caught it again, if you don’t tell Hawkeye that I was late, I won’t get you into trouble for this, I suppose,” and he threw the ball right at Havoc, who instantly caught it. “Sure, boss.”   
Brigadier-General Mustang closed the door behind him, and, walking towards his desk, took of his coat. “Uh, where is the Lieutenant anyway? Did she have a meeting this morning?” He sat down and could now see the ‘target’ on the door. Little wet paper balls were sticking to a picture of none other than Olivier Mira Armstrong, which was a sight that immediately brightened his day. Breda, who had helped Havoc back to his place, turned towards him and retorted “Shouldn’t you know that?”   
Mustang sighed and let himself fall into his chair, shooting a dreadful glance at all his paperwork. “Well, no, she shouldn’t have any meetings to my knowledge, but I thought maybe she had come in early, told you all about it and left again?” “No, she hasn’t been here at all.” Suddenly all eyes moved towards the clock. Hawkeye was late. And this almost never happened. Currently, she was 30 minutes behind her usual time. “Well, she’s gotta be late someday, so maybe that is today,” Roy said, probably more to reassure himself than anything. “Alright, let’s get some work done.”  
The minutes were slowly dragging on and Roy spent more time shooting glances at the clock than managing to read through his documents. After about 10 minutes, which felt like hours, he finally announced “Alright, I’m going to call her now.” He reached towards his telephone and dialled her number. The phone rang but no one picked up. After a while, he put the receiver down. “She’s probably on her way by now.” While he said this, he realized he sounded much more worried than he had anticipated. “Sure, sure” Fuery piped up, probably noticing the concern in Roy’s voice, but his remark hardly did anything to soothe him.   
Another 10 minutes went by,then 15, 17… “Okay that’s it!” Roy’s fist hit his desk and he got to his feet. “We have to go and look for her.” “Uhm, Sir, are you sure?” “Of course! What if she got his by a car? What if her dog attacked her? What if-“ “OKAY, I’m going to stop you right there! What Nonsense could you possibly think of after that?!” Breda had also gotten to his feet. When Mustang turned around to give a quick answer, the door suddenly opened and Riza Hawkeye walked into the room. She had a slightly haunted look to her and a few strands of her hair had fallen out of her ponytail. Her cheeks were a bit flushed and a bead of sweat rolled down her forehead. Clearly, she had hurried to come here. She wrinkled her forehead at the sight of Breda and Roy standing up and, slowly closing the door behind her. “Oh,” Roy suddenly felt very foolish standing there, in the middle of the room. “You’re late,” was what he finally came up with. “Yes, sorry,” Riza said as she walked towards her desk.   
Roy slowly turned around and walked back to his desk, keeping an eye on Riza. “Do… do you have an excuse?” he asked when he had finally reached his destination and had sat down. Riza looked up from her paperwork she was already hard at work at. The rest of the men just kept looking from one to the other, this was certainly something they weren’t going to miss. “Black Hayate was sick so I had to get him to the vet and find someone to watch him.” Riza held Roy’s steady gaze perfectly. “Oh no, what’s wrong with him?” Fuery, who loved the dog to pieces, sounded very upset. “Just a little upset stomach, I guess he ate something last night on our walk.” Riza shrugged lightly, “He will be better soon, the vet said, he just needs a little rest.” Kain seemed to have been content with this explanation and went back to work, but Roy felt that something was a bit off. He studied Riza’s face, who was apparently deep in her work again, but couldn’t read into her expression. After a while, he sighed and looked down at the giant pile of papers on his desk. This was promising to be a very unproductive day.

Hours passed, and Roy’s prediction came true - he hardly got any work done. This of course meant that he would have to work well into the evening, how wonderful. Shortly before it was time to leave for the rest of his troupe, Riza got up and stood in front of his desk. “I need to request a day off tomorrow.” All eyes were on the two of them, as Roy laid his pen down and looked up at her. “I phoned the vet during lunch break and they would like to see Black Hayate again tomorrow. And because I have accumulated a decent amount of overtime, I’d rather make sure he is okay and take the day off.” This was much more of an explanation than Roy had anticipated, and he was sure that, again, Riza was not being completely honest. But he was also certain she must have her reasons and would surely explain sooner or later, and so his only answer was, “Sure”. Nevertheless, when all his subordinates had gone home, and he was left alone with his pile of papers, he wasted a lot of time thinking about the first Lieutenant.


	3. Vera

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riza isn't sure if she is looking at a visitor or an old photograph of herself, but this is definitely the reason why she is late for work.

A lot of time and a lot of paper that had passed through his hands later, Roy was ready to call it a night. After reading countless documents just telling him what ‘efforts’ had been made to achieve some relieve for the Ishval region in the last five years his stomach turned. It would be a long time still until they would be able to make the region inhabitable again. There were still mines buried in the ground everywhere, cities had become uninhabitable and some might even never recover, as poisoned wells or water reservoirs would prevent such actions. He sighed deeply and leaned back in his chair. With one hand pressed to his forehead, he closed his eyes and thought about the things he had read tonight. It was going to take a whole lot of time and sweat but that was the least he could do to repent for the horrible things that he had done. All the crimes he committed. All these people he murdered, burned, until only the smell of charred flesh was left. Suddenly, a noise ripped him out of this treacherous spiral of thoughts.

“Sir?” a familiar voice asked, and when he opened his eyes and leaned forward again, he saw Riza Hawkeye stand in the half-opened door, her knuckles raised to the doorframe as if to knock. “Lieutenant,” Roy cleared his throat, “what are you doing back here?” “Well,” Riza turned her head to look over her shoulder and a point which Roy couldn’t see, “I think we need your help.” She opened the door a bit further and lead another figure into the room. Roy could hardly believe his eyes because before him stood two almost identical looking women. The two walked closer to his desk and as they did, Roy was able to make out some discerning features. First and foremost, the second women looked to be much younger, almost a child. She had longer hair, too, which she wore in a low ponytail, and her eyes were of a darker colour. The family resemblance was undeniable, and if Roy hadn’t known better about the Hawkeye family, he would have thought that she was Riza’s younger sister. Black Hayate was following Riza at her heels and didn’t seem nearly as disturbed about this image as Roy felt.

“May I introduce Vera to you?” The Brigadier-General had already risen to his feet while the two were approaching, so he automatically stuck out his hand to greet the young woman. Her handshake was cold but firm and she held his quizzical gaze without looking away. “Nice to meet you. Roy Mustang.” - “Hello, Mr. Mustang.” Her voice sounded a bit scratchy. “I can tell you noticed our resemblance. Vera here revealed to me this morning that she is my cousin, and no, before you ask, I had no idea my mother had had a sibling.” Her eyes had a certain spark to them, just as if she was excited about this revelation. A simple onlooker might not have been able to see anything different about the First Lieutenant’s composure, but Roy had known her for ages, so he was certain that Riza was honestly enthusiastic about the whole situation. “So, this means the little bugger is not sick,” said Roy as he looked down at the little Shiba Inu at Riza’s feet. “Sorry to have lied to you, Sir, but I’m sure you understand.” - “Of course.” A slight smile crept upon his face. He was happy that she had come back now and seemed to trust him with such private matters. “So,” he said, “how can I be of help, then?” “Well,” Riza breathed out and shot a glance at Vera, who looked back at her and shrugged. “Let’s sit down, it will take a bit of explaining.”

* * *

 

**Earlier that same day.**

The smell of slightly burned eggs and coffee still hung in the air when Riza grabbed the keys to her apartment door and called for Hayate. She heard her little Shiba Inu’s paws hit the wooden floor and bent down to fix the leash to his collar. Before she could open her door, she heard some muffled talking and footsteps coming closer down the hallway towards her. “…never knew she’d fam’ly, never talks muchabout ‘erself that is” Riza recognized the voice of Mrs. Lawson, her building’s superintendent and, as she called herself, the “building’s chaperone” which could easily be replaced by “buzzkill” as Rebecca always pointed out, but in much harsher words. A sharp knock on her door brought her back to the present. “Miss Hawkeye,” shouted Mrs. Lawson, “ye gotta visitor.” Riza waited a little bit, then opened the door – and almost gasped. Before her, next to Mrs. Lawson ogling her, hoping to glimpse a reaction, stood a girl that looked like she’d fallen out of an old photograph that Riza kept on her own nightstand, showing her aged 16.

The girl had blond hair, tied back in a strict ponytail, her eyes were almost of an identical brown to Riza’s and even the shape of the face looked eerily familiar. It was clear she had not slept in a while and probably been traveling. She had dark rings under eyes (even those looked similar) and some strands of hair had escaped the ponytail, sticking to her forehead. She was wearing dark pants and battered up boots, a simple dark green sweatshirt and a leather jacket on top, both looked a little rough. “Hi, I’m Vera”, she said and reached out her hand. Riza shook it almost automatically. Vera shot Mrs. Lawson and insecure glance before looking back at Riza while raising an eyebrow. Riza cleared her throat and gave Mrs. Lawson a smile she hoped looked friendly. “Thank you, Mrs. Lawson”, she said and ushered Vera in. Mrs. Lawson looked like she wanted to come in as well but kept back at the last moment and instead said: “Ye know if ye’ve visitors for ‘n extended period that that’s not actually permitted, Miss. Gotta pay a bit extra for that, that is.” Riza almost rolled her eyes. “I’m well aware of that, thank you Mrs. Lawson, I’ll inform you thusly if it should come to that. Goodbye”, and before her superintendent could utter another word, she closed the door.

“Wow,” said Vera, “she’s a nosy bitch alright.” ‘Rebecca would like her.’ “Vera, right?” Riza asked, “come, let’s sit,” and she led the way to her little living room. Black Hayate, who had behaved splendidly and not even growled once at Mrs. Lawson this time, was happily wagging his tail and tried to reach the new girl’s hand so he could lick it. When Vera noticed that, she bent down and scratched him a bit behind his ears. ‘Passed the first test,’ Riza thought and felt herself warming up to the girl a little, despite the fact that she definitely now made her late for work and gave Mrs. Lawson more gossip to spread. The lieutenant sidestepped to the little kitchen area and picked up another cup, which she filled with some leftover coffee from her breakfast. When she turned around, Vera had already sunken onto the small dark blue couch standing beside a window overlooking a bleak Central City street. Riza held out the cup: “Coffee? You look like you could use some.” – “Oh yes! Thanks.” Vera took the cup eagerly and smelled it, a look of happiness coming over her face. “That’s the stuff alright!” Riza sat down on her armchair and faced the girl.

“So,” she said, “you’re obviously related to me and you seem to have travelled quite a bit. I wasn’t aware I had any relatives, so this comes as a bit of a … well … surprise to say the least. So, who are you?” Vera took a big gulp of coffee before she looked at Riza, and back at her hands, almost a bit timid now. “I’m your cousin, on your mom’s side that is- uhm, I mean, well, you probably already figured that out , cause I mean, we both look pretty much like our moms, and they looked very much the same, you know that probably, or em, well, maybe not? Shit, I mean, you said you didn’t know you had relatives, so probably didn’t know you had an aunt, oh wow I’m rambling, uhhh…” Vera took refuge in her coffee again and glanced quickly towards Riza, who was massaging her temple with her left hand.

“You’re my cousin, and I have an aunt? Is that correct so far?” – “Yeah exactly, your mom and my mom were twins, ya know? That’s why I said they looked familiar. Sorry about your mom by the way.” Vera suddenly looked very serious and there was something else in her eyes, sadness maybe? Riza wasn’t quite sure. “It’s alright, she has been dead for a long time,” Riza said and saw Vera almost flinch at that. Weird. “Any more relatives that I should know of?” she asked, almost jokingly. “Oh,” Vera looked like she had been brought back from somewhere in her thoughts, “uhm nah, not that I know at least? I’m an only child and mum only ever talked about your mom, aunt Fern, but nobody else. Oh, and grandfather at least, or the ‘tyrant’, as she calls him. But I don’t know who he is and, that’s kinda why I’m here?”

Vera looked at Riza with a weird look on her face. “But, uhm, you said you don’t know anything about your relatives so… uhm… you don’t know who he is, right?” the girl almost sounded like she was holding back tears now and Riza had the urge to reach out a hand and put it on her shoulder but held herself back. She waited a bit instead and gave Vera time breathe, because it was clear the girl was trying anything to keep herself from crying. “No, I’m sorry. My mum never talked about her upbringing and from what I know from my father he never liked his father-in-law very much, which apparently had been a mutual feeling. At least, that’s the explanation I had gotten as a child when I asked. My mum split from her family.” Riza looked at the girl, now looking even younger and more tired than just a while ago.

“It’s nice to know I actually have more family though. Nice to meet you, Vera,” and when the girl looked up from her now empty cup, she gave her an honest smile. Vera tiredly smiled back. "You went to my old family home, correct?" Riza suddenly remembered the note that Rebecca had given her. "And you talked to Lisbeth. So she was the one who gave you my address here? Why did you seek me out now?" - “Yeah, well, I also only found out a little while ago we're related to be honest. It’s also kinda why I’m here. My mom is sick, something with her lungs or whatever… I, uhm, I came here because I need my grandfathers help. And I thought you might be able to help me because my mom let it slip that he is, or at least was, a military man. And I- “she suddenly started digging around in her duffle bag at her feet and finally pulled out a folded piece of paper. Riza recognized a little newspaper cut-out as Vera unfolded it, the crinkling made Hayate lift his head.

“Here, I found a picture of you in the newspaper, after that military coup d’état or whatever, and I was like ‘shit, she looks like my mom and me’ and when I showed it to mom she got all flustered and actually told me she had had a sister and that sister had a daughter. It was pretty wild. And she then also said something like ‘Fern would turn in her grave if she knew our old man got to work together with his granddaughter after all’, and when I asked her if my grandfather was also in the military, she made it clear he was definitely of a higher rank. But that’s all she ever said about that. And then she got sick. And we need money for the doctors cause the little bastards will charge fucking shitloads of money and my dad can’t do any more work, already sold so much of our stuff that I’ll be surprised if we still own a house when I come back to them. Fuck!” Vera buried her face in her hands and was silent for a moment. Riza gave her the time to compose herself, then asked: “And your mom probably doesn’t want to ask her father herself I take it?” - “Oh god no, I once tried to ask her, and she said ‘over my dead body’ which is fucking ironic cause that’s exactly the outcome she’ll get when she doesn’t give up her pride a bit or whatever. She’s so fucking stubborn.” Vera stared down at her lap where she was curling her hands into fists and uncurling them again.

Watching her, Riza wasn’t sure if she this was real. First, she found out that she had a little cousin, that resembled her in a haunting manner, and then she supposedly had a grandfather, that was or had been part of the military? This was a lot for one morning. She glanced at her clock. ‘Shit.’ She was running late. “Vera, listen, I’ll help you, alright? This is … a lot, but don’t worry. How about you take a shower and sleep for a while? I really have to go for work but what do you think about Black Hayate staying here, keeping you company?” Vera sniffed, breathed out and looked up at Riza. “Yeah, that- I mean, thank you so much. I’m sorry I just came here… Uhm, thanks.” The cocky young woman at her door had revealed to be a very sad and desperate child and the lieutenant felt sorry for her, she reminded her a lot of herself at that age.

She explained to her where the shower and the bed were, instructed her to not open the door under any circumstances and gave her the extra key to the door in case anything were to happen. She then went for a brisk 2-minute walk with her dog and at last left for work, already thinking about how she’d find out who Vera’s grand – well, who Vera’s and her grandfather was, and if he was even still alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whaddup`??!!! Heyyy, I kept writing, this fic will not be abandoned ;). What do you think about Vera? I think Rebecca would definitely like her.


End file.
